1In the fourth year of King Darius the word of the LORD came to Zechariah in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chislev.2Bethel-Sharezer and Regem-melech and his men sent to entreat the face of the LORD.3Saying to the priests who belonged to the house of the LORD of Hosts and to the prophets, "Shall I weep in the fifth month by dedicating myself, just as I have done these many years?"4And the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,5Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month, these seventy years, was the fast that you fasted to me?"6And when you eat and when you drink, are you not the ones eating and are you not the ones drinking?7Were not the words that the LORD spoke by the hand of the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was dwelling at ease, and her cities around her, and the Negeb and the Shephelah were dwelling?8And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying.9Thus says the LORD of Hosts: Judge with true judgment, and show kindness and compassion, each man to his brother.10And the widow and the orphan, the sojourner and the afflicted, do not oppress, and the distress of each man his brother do not devise in your heart.11And they refused to listen and gave a shoulder of rebellion and made their ears heavy from hearing.12And their heart they set as flint from hearing the instruction and the words that the LORD of Hosts sent by his spirit by the hand of the earlier prophets, and great wrath came from the LORD of Hosts.13And it was just as he called and they did not hear, so they will call and I will not hear, says the LORD of Hosts.14And I scattered them among all the nations that they did not know, and the land was made a waste after them, with no one passing through or returning; and they made a desirable land into a waste.